WA Government now engaged in shark revenge killings

6th June, 2016

Humane Society International’s (HSI) Campaign Director Michael Kennedy today expressed extreme concern at the WA Government's decision to attempt to catch and kill yet another threatened great white shark at Mindarie. “Given that science tells us that drumlines are an unnecessary and lethal option for shark management, the Government’s response can only be described as revenge killing,” said Mr Kennedy.

As HSI noted in its media release last Friday, scientists at Deakin University confirmed that shark control programs are providing nothing more than peace of mind, at the expense of our marine environment.* The study at Deakin University was not the first to show nets and drumlines offer no real defence against a shark interaction; Hawaii gave up their drumline program due to this fact. And in 2014, 305 scientists from around the world wrote to WA Premier Barnett protesting the deployment of drum lines.

In other words killing sharks DOES NOT make our beaches safer.

Mr Kennedy continued, "HSI offers its sincere sympathy to the relatives and friends of those that have died in the last few days, but we fail to see how killing the nearest great white shark helps anybody. Most people who have had family or friends harmed by sharks in the last few years have expressly said that they did not want the shark to be killed. So why is the WA Government continuing to kill them?”

“HSI continues to look at the legal options available to us to put an end to shark control programs in all Australian states which use them, and we warn the WA Government against the use of drumlines in the future. The WA Government simply gives the whole world the impression that these are nothing but revenge killings,” Mr Kennedy concluded.

* ABC Four Corners highlighted the work of Associate Professor Laurie Laurenson from Deakin University in February 2016.